Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Dear Friends!

I just got back from Sanford, Florida, where I spent the weekend standing together with people there, speaking bitterness about Trayvon’s murder, and about all the other Trayvon’s; and taking to them a message of No More — “No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over… who have been condemned to a life of oppression and oblivion, even before they are born.” [BAsics 1:13]

I’ll write more about that trip soon.  Right now I’m writing you about June 5th, which is 100 days since the vigilante murder of Trayvon, and the call to make that day a day of Justice for Trayvon; a day to wear hoodies and say defiantly “We Are All Trayvon.”

Whether or not people act on June 5th matters.  Right now the mouthpieces of the system are telling us that protest has done its part now that Zimmerman has been indicted and that it’s time to get out of the streets and let the courts work.  The truth is that the system was working when it let Zimmerman walk free the night he murdered Trayvon and when it drug tested Trayvon’s dead body but didn’t drug test his killer.  And it’s still working as story after story turns up in the media portraying Zimmerman as the victim and dragging Trayvon’s reputation thru the mud.

IT IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT THAT WE ACT WITH DETERMINATION TO DECLARE THAT WE WILL NOT SIT BACK IN SILENCE WHILE THE SKIDS ARE GREASED TO EXONERATE TRAYVON’S KILLER AGAIN!

June 5th, 2012 — Wear your hoodies, and encourage others to wear theirs too.  Organize others to get involved thru Face book and on Twitter.  Create posters that say, “We Are All Trayvon!” and spread them to others.  Take this message into your schools; bring it out at rallies after school, in your communities and in every way possible.  

And take pictures of whatever you do and send them in to the Stop Mass Incarceration Network at stopmassincarceration@gmail.com so people everywhere know that this is happening all across the country.  Make sure there are no secret actions on June 5th.

People in Sanford were very heartened to hear that people around the country haven’t given up on fighting for justice for Trayvon.  Some of them are talking about what they could do there to be a part of this nationwide action.  Join with them and others all across the country.

 

June 5: WE ARE ALL TRAYVON; THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY!

Carl Dix
May 29, 2012

Monday, May 28, 2012

Rollin' Into Sanford FL with the BAsics Bus Tour!

This is what was delivered to people throughout Sanford. These photos are representative of hundreds of people across the country coming together to send a message to the people of Sanford: “No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.” - Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:13 Help spread this message…. repost this photo, get it out on twitter and other social networks… let us know your thoughts, email the BAsic Bus Tour at baeverywhere [AT] gmail.com. Check the BAsic Bus Tour's blog for daily reports and updates at http://basicsbustour.tumblr.com/
Carl Dix at a speak out in front of the Sanford, FL police headquarters outside the historic Goldsboro community on May 25, 2012. Sanford is where 17 year old Trayvon Martin was murdered in a modern American lynching.

Why I Am Going to Sanford, Florida

Blog Editor's Note: A lot has transpired since our mobilization for April 19th National Day of Resistance Against Mass Incarceration, and we've been tardy with our reports and updates. April 19th was successful in launching a nation wide movement against Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide.  On May 7th Carl then joined with Cornel West for another round of their traveling campus dialogue, "In the Age of Obama: What Future For Our Youth?" before a crowd of 1,200 people at the University of Chicago.

On Memorial Day weekend, Carl traveled to Sanford, Florida, the site of the murder of Trayvon Martin, to join up with the BAsics Bus Tour. Below is Carl's op-ed piece reprinted from The Black Star News explaining about this:

Reprinted from The Black Star News, May 27, 2012 http://blackstarnews.com

I’m traveling to Sanford, Florida, the scene of the crime where Trayvon Martin was gunned down by a wanna-be-cop; where police refused to arrest Trayvon’s killer, George Zimmerman, for six weeks.
The place where thousands and thousands of people stood up and fought until the arrest was made. And the place where – despite all of this – public opinion is being created, and the legal basis is being laid, for Zimmerman's acquittal.

I’ll be meeting up with the BAsics Bus Tour to deliver a message to the people of Sanford, to people across the country and to the people of the world: Not this time! Not this time! As Bob Avakian, leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, says: “No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.” This quote from Avakian is on a banner that the BAsics Bus Tour has been taking out to oppressed communities as it rolled through Atlanta and headed south. Hundreds of people from housing projects, in immigrant neighborhoods, and at high schools have added their names to this banner. To those who are working to contain the righteous anger that has burst forth against the murder of Trayvon by saying, “It’s time to get out of the streets and let the legal system work!” I say this: The system was working when the Sanford Police let Trayvon’s killer walk the night of his murder. The system was working when the Sanford Police ran a drug test on Trayvon’s dead body but not on the still-living man who pulled the trigger. The system is working now as stories turn up in the news portraying Zimmerman as the victim. The only way justice will be won is if people stay in the streets.

On Friday at 4:00 pm, we will take this banner in protest to the front of the Sanford Police Department.

We are not going to the Sanford Police Department because this is the only police station filled with racist and brutal cops. People across the country took up the slogan, “We are all Trayvon” because police and vigilante violence against oppressed youth is so common it is pretty much a “right of passage” for Blacks and Latinos. As such, we are going to Sanford to draw a line. No more!

This is not an issue for Black people alone. If you care about justice, you need to be there with us. Come down and stand with us physically or send a message of support to be delivered with us, you can write to baeverywhere@gmail.com

On Saturday, I will be joining with the BAsics Bus Tour to formally deliver this banner to the people of Sanford.

This message from Avakian, which has been signed by hundreds of others, is directly relevant to the case of Trayvon Martin – but it is also much bigger than that.  The USA’s terror against Black people didn’t begin with Trayvon Martin – or even with the nation-wide epidemic of police brutality and murder.

It began with kidnappings from Africa, continued on the auction blocks, includes those experimented on by medical science after slavery was formally abolished, includes those chained to the land as share-croppers and terrorized and lynched by night-riding KKK after that, and is going on today through the slow genocide of mass incarceration.

We are not only talking about Black people. We are talking about the women and young girls throughout the world sold into sexual slavery in the millions, about the children toiling in the fields and the sweatshops around the world to make our clothes and our iphones, about the children torn from their parents who risk their lives to cross the US/Mexican border in a desperate search for work, about the children whose lives are stolen under US bombs from Afghanistan to Pakistan and beyond.

Avakian is a leader who has dug into the experience of previous revolutionary societies, highlighting their great achievements, fearlessly examining their errors and shortcomings and thru that developing a new approach to revolution and communism that gives us a very real basis to make good on our declaration of no more!

At this moment, when – in broad daylight and before the eyes of millions – the system prepares to sweep the murder of another Black youth under the rug, two things are imperative to all those with eyes and a conscience.

First, will this case be remembered as one more nail in the coffin of a whole generation, a green light to murder and profile and destroy and the demoralization and feeling of defeat for millions who just began to lift their heads and fight for an end to this, or will this represent a win, and an advance in the fight to go even further – the strengthening and the opening up of possibilities both in what can be achieved and in what people dare for and dream of?

A young supporter of the revolution recently put it this way, “You don’t get a second chance to do what is needed--we only get one, people choose to either fight back or stand aside while lives are stolen.”

And second, while we stand in this fight together, confront the implications of this system, its nature and its possible alternative and the leadership and vision that can actually lay the basis for a whole better world thru revolution.

This weekend, the place to be is Sanford with the BAsics Bus Tour. If you can’t make it down to Sanford, then get on the bus in spirit—go to: basicsbustotur.tumblr.com. Follow the Bus Tour on line, spread the word on it to everyone you know, and support it. And follow me on Twitter @carl_dix to get reports on the BAsics Bus Tour rolling thru Sanford.